


The Pirate Prince at the Stark Expo

by SilverLoreley



Series: S.A.B.R.E. : Sorcerers Array for Balance and Research Enchantments [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Once Upon a Time (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 11:29:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4477595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverLoreley/pseuds/SilverLoreley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years ago, Henry made a mistake. Liam knows about it and his choice to join SABRE is to support the brother that was always there for him. But for Fury, SABRE is more than this: he wants them to check on what he seems fit. Liam is not one to refuse and that's how he ended up at the Stark Expo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pirate Prince at the Stark Expo

**S.A.B.R.E.**  
**S** orcerers **A** rray for **B** alance and **R** esearch **E** nchantments  
_(unofficial ward of **S** trategic **H** omeland **I** ntervention **E** nforcement and **L** ogistic **D** ivision)_  


**The Pirate Prince at the Stark Expo**

 

            Liam Jones was a peculiar young man. Being more than a decade younger than his half-brother Henry and seven years older than his sweet sister Rachel, he was almost the same age of his uncle Neal, quite an oddity in fact, but not unheard of. He inherited from his complicated family a lot of good qualities, along with some very bad ones and a load of neutral stuff.  
His blond hair and stubbornness were his mother's, his blue eyes and his sword fighting skills were often cause of argument between his father Killian and his grandfather David, his good heart was surely from all of them, maybe grandmother Snow's a bit more than the others', but together they were the most important heroes in the town.  
And then there was his magic.  
This gift showed itself when he wasn't older than four. He was afraid of the dark and in split of second his room was light as it was day. His brother Henry was the first one to notice and the one who supported him the most in learning how to use it, no matter that Henry himself had no powers like his.  
In Liam's opinion Henry was the best older brother one could wish for, but he wasn't perfect.  
It happened that Henry, who not only had the Heart of the Truest Believer but was the Author too, accidentally spilled some Magic Ink on a few of his comic books.  
The Land Without Magic had been quite a boorish place before, with lots of problems, great ideas but never with people great enough to make a difference alone. In Henry's comics, things were different. Bigger, mightier, more exciting and sparkling and dangerous and so much more.  
Since Henry spilled the Ink, things started to change. Slightly, but inequivocabily changes happened and nobody knew how much except for Henry.  
This became evident when it turned out that Captain America was now part of textbooks, when mentions of a not-so-secret worldwide organization started become common knowledge and, finally, when Henry's favourite superhero, the Hulk, appeared on the news, things seemed settled for a definite change.  
Liam was too young to understand how important this change was at the time, but now he was in his twenties, he was positive he got it.  
The Author's Ink changed the very tune of their story.  
Odd that Merlin didn't punish Henry but maybe, just maybe, he recognized it was a mere mistake.  
Henry hadn't spill the Ink on every comic, just a few drops on a couple and since then he had had to work hard to keep with the pace of the new plot he had the duty to record.  
Honestly, Liam was surprised when Fury asked for him and his friends, even suspicious Henry somehow interfered, but being Henry the person he was, the one that broke the magic quill when he was merely a teen, the doubt disappeared from his mind. It must have been his family's usual luck because Fury found them when they decided to leave Storybrooke to be certain magic still didn't work outside.  
Their surprise when they discovered that that was no longer true was what prompted Liam to accept the job. He had to protect the world from the dangers of magic like his family did, to help his brother fix his mistake and to be sure drastic changes were organic enough to convince Merlin not to punish Henry.  
So here he was, part of the SABRE, under the direct order of Nick Fury to be absolutely sure Tony Stark, no less, was fine.  
Fury said had the feeling something was very wrong with Stark and Liam's duty was to watch from afar, someone else was going to be let inside to value him about the Avengers Initiative, mostly, and he only had to keep an eye so no civilians suffered side effects of his eccentricity. It was not supposed to be SABRE's job, but Liam kinda liked it.  
Technology was one of his passions and his admiration for Mr Stark's genius was a great bonus point. Besides, he really wanted to go to the Expo, duty or not.  
He was thinking about how unfortunate was the fact he wasn't able to take Rachel with him - his little sister would have loved it but their mother had been categorical and not even their father had been able to make sheriff Swan change her mind - when the stage fell black, only to be enlightened by the decorative lanterns ballerinas, called Ironettes, had attached to their hands, along with deafening music.  
Fireworks started as well in the sky all above and on the stage too at the exact moment Iron Man's full armor, with Tony Stark inside, grounded from the night sky in an outburst of applauses and screams.  
It looked a lot more like a concert than the beginning of a great science exhibition, but no one was going to complain.  
Liam applauded as well from his lucky position at the side of the stage, gentle concession of Fury, obviously, as he listened to Stark's speech that introduced the old video of Howard Stark.  
Now, Liam knew Howard Stark wasn't supposed to exist, not in this reality at least, and he had no memory of seeing him on the news or tv, but he didn't allow this to focus less on the present task of checking Tony Stark. The man was checking on some little rectangular object, a pager, maybe, or, after the man put his finger in his mouth, Liam thought it must have been one of those things to check diabetes.  
The information was completely new: of all things, no one could suppose that a man with such a self-indulgent lifestyle had this kind of problem.  
Liam pushed the idea aside.  
He read the files SHIELD was in possession about the billionaire and they were... well, detailed was an understatement. There was probably more about Tony Stark in those files than in any clinical record that existed about him. Liver problems? He drank too much not to. A recollection of every single broken bone or scratch he had after he was kidnapped? Absolutely. But diabetes? Diabetes was nowhere.  
The young man moved from his position to the backstage, where security was already doing its job to keep calm the small of very lucky - and paying - guests that were there to have a couple words with Stark before he was out of reach all over again.  
He didn't even try to approach him, his job was to stay hidden and check, he had to remind himself, but he guessed that if he were a girl the attempt would have been less suspicious.  
He was going to put it in the report, maybe to suggest Black Widow for the operation once he was at it.  
To be fair, Liam never meet her, exactly as she never saw him, but he saw her file once and he had to admit she was equally gorgeous and skilled.  
And he was positively sure the red-haired woman parked against Stark's car outside was not Natasha Romanoff, nor a common groupie.  
She must have been from the Government, the voice they wanted to put their hands on the Iron Man suit must have been true then.  
Looked like his job was not over.

/◄►/

In Washington, the committee had been funnier than Liam was going to admit.  
Difficult to handle, for a person who was less than Tony Stark, but he was the man and managed to turn everything to his favour in less time that Liam needed to understand there was something fishy with Senator Stern.  
«Not like any politician's kind of fishy, sir» Liam said later to Fury «They all stink. That's something worse»  
«Politicians are all trash, Jones» Fury replied «Like any person with more power than brain. Let me deal with them and be busy in finding out what's wrong with Stark»  
«Sir, if I can» replied politely the younger man «Why are you worrying so much about Tony Stark's wellbeing? It's for the Avengers Initiative or...»  
Fury interrupted him «Kid, you do what I say, I know my reasons. Compartmentalization is what kept you safe 'til now, wasn't it?»  
_Good form_ , Liam's father voice whispered _Is not always pleasant, but if you manage to keep it it will help you_.  
He swallowed the remark about how he and SABRE were keeping people safe as well and complied: «Sure, sir»  
«Good» commented the director «Now, Stark decided to make his secretary CEO of Stark Industries and we'll manage to put Romanoff behind a desk in his legal firm in a matter of minutes. You...» Fury pointed his finger at Liam «Gave a good suggestion. She'll surely manage to pick any useful information once inside. Still need you on the outside, especially where she's not supposed to be present or when Stark is going to do something stupid»  
«I'm demoted to standard agent?» Liam asked, with a bit of disappointment «I'm part of SABRE, sir, this is not supposed to be my job, especially if I don't really know why I do this»  
Fury looked at him with his only eye for a long moment, but Liam didn't allow himself to even bat an eyelash. One thing was to do a little favour, another was to be standardized, especially when there were other people who can do such a menial job. This was not what he signed for and he wanted to make sure the man in front of him remembered it as well.  
«Is that a mutiny?» asked Fury in the end, but he didn't looked as pissed off as Liam expected. It looked a lot more like a joke, actually.  
He smiled «I am the son of a pirate after all»  
«Find me what you can about Stark's problem before Romanoff and I could think about telling you»  
It was a bet more than an assignment, the exact thing Liam couldn't refuse. And he knew who to ask for help.

/◄►/

" _It must have been a Stark Medical Scanner, Liam_ " muttered Beke on the other side of the phone " _We use it a lot recently, especially in places where it's hard to obtain proper blood tests_ "  
Did he ever mentioned he loved that girl? Not like romantically - bloody hell, she was sort of his sister! - but she was simply great.  
«What was he doing with it?» he pondered.  
" _A blood test, obviously_ " she answered immediately.  
He groaned «Come on, Bex! You're a doctor! You must have an idea of why...»  
" _I just got the PhD, Liam! I'm not an expert, not yet, and surely I can't make a diagnosis on phone when you didn't even got a good look at what he was checking_ " she scolded him.  
«Can't you... I don't know, watch some videos or else?» he suggested.  
" _I'm busy here and I don't have a mirror, let alone a pc. Not all of us is so lucky to work in big cities all the time_ " she didn't say it like she was pissed off, but Liam knew her better.  
«At least give me an idea?»  
Vibeke was quiet for a moment, he could figure his foster-sister pinching the bridge of her nose, trying to give him the answer he wanted.  
" _Cholesterol, anemia, renal or hepatic impairment_ " she eventually said " _There are only a few things that came to my mind. If he does that often he's probably trying to keep in check his condition, but if you think is something continuous it could be poisoning as well_ "  
«This, this one!»  
" _Wait, what?_ "  
«I got a feeling it's poisoning»  
" _A feeling? You can't do diagnosis on feelings_ "  
«No, _you_ can't. I'm not a doctor, I'm not responsible»  
He clearly saw her rolling her eyes " _Sure. I've gotta go now. Stay safe_ "  
«Really? You say that to me? I'm not the one in a war zone»  
" _Coz thinks you may be soon. Be careful_ "  
«I'll try»

/◄►/

Fury didn't let Liam go to Monaco with the Jolly Rogers, no matter how the young man promised to camouflate it to make it look like a regular ship, despite Killian's obvious opposition. - Much to his father's credit, the Jolly Rogers wasn't a common ship and it looked horrible that way -.  
Had he been there when the crazy man attacked Stark he could have avoided most of the trouble, but he was on the other side of the track and didn't manage to get there before the greatest part of the damage was already done. He did manage to create a secondary safe-net over the tech one, one that avoided people to get hit by car pieces and flames, but it wasn't much needed.  
Anyway, Stark dealt with it almost too well and if Fury didn't know the billionaire had a portable version of his suit he hid it well. Not the same with public opinion, but, hey, papers were bullshit.  
He reported to Fury about what Beke supposed and it turned out agent Romanoff found in Stark's behavior self-destructive tendencies compatible with the fear of dying.  
Well, she found out everything else too, as predictable as it could seem, but it turned out Fury knew even more. On his own. Because he knew Howard Stark personally.  
Great.  
So, it meant his bet was lost.  
But Fury was a man of honor after all. He pushed it aside when he had to - and with his job he often had to - , but he wasn't bad.  
And he paid the bet even though he didn't have to with a phone call: " _Palladium poisoning, from the Arc Reactor. He'll fix it, like his father believed. Happy now, Jones?_ "  
Liam nodded, even though the colonel couldn't see him «Thanks, sir. For your trust»  
" _It's not trust. I want you at the Expo again, for Hammer's presentation. That jackass must have something more than the stolen suit_ "  
«Still following your gut, sir?»  
" _Following my intel. Romanoff will be there, but you go too, just in case_ "  
«Sure, sir»

/◄►/

Drones. That son of a bitch of Hammer had drones!  
But not the controller, clearly, because, come on, he was a bag of shit but he didn't want to kill Stark, unlike the madman behind it all.  
In his peripheral vision Liam saw Ms Potts and agent Romanoff striding with purpose in the direction the controls should have been, but he couldn't follow them, too busy in projecting small energy shields to deviate bullets and grenades from innocent people.  
To his credit, Stark was doing quite the job in avoiding them on his own and leading them outside the Expo, already in alert and evacuating.  
Liam tried to call someone, anyone, but lines were out.  
Well, he supposed with that havoc no one was going to see him disappearing from one point and appearing into another, moving people or telling them where to go.  
He was far too expert in those things, he basically grew up in this kind of situations not to know every possible evacuation plan.  
When the drones started falling on the ground, or they came too close to people, Liam ready with his sword in his hands, disguised as a metal stick by a simple cloaking spell.  
His sword was one the old ones his father kept in the ship, nothing like his grandfather's special steel sword, empowered by magic through the years, but it had its tricks on it too.  
First of all, it was able to channel his magic and become extra-resistant, this way there was next to no chance it was going to break.  
Secondly, there was a protection spell on it, so the blade projected a force field able to stop the eventual bullets.  
Thirdly, and this Liam liked in particular, he could make the blade incandescent, so his strokes perfectly cut even the sturdy metal of the drones like it was butter.  
Not that it was hard, the drones were clearly setted on Stark, and to create a bit of panic at the worst, it wasn't even funny.  
He continued hitting and cutting in pieces the drones on the ground, actively thinning out the ranks until the remained took flight behind Iron Man.  
At this point, the only thing Liam could do was to follow his habit and stay until everyone was out, unnoticed by the police.  
That's how he felt something wrong. When all the people - except for Ms Potts who stayed somewhere outside the conference hall, but this he found out later - were gone from the structure, he felt a scent of magic, something that had been hidden by the amount of people until that moment.  
He followed the track.  
In one of the deserted pavilions, among the scientific equipments and tech innovations, he spotted what it looked like a metal coil or a very simple armlet, but there was more in it, he could feel the raw energy it spread, the same that lured him there. It was connected with some sort of field generator prototype - a museum piece in comparison with the modern one beside it - that was supposed to be shut during the evacuation, but it still spread a low energy.  
Carefully, he touched it with his fingertips His own glowing white magic immediately connected with it, running on its own will from his hands to the object. It didn't react except for the fant light that covered it.  
It looked harmless, warm to the touch and emitted a calming feeling that reminded him his mother's hands trough his hair when he was ill or his dad's one-armed hugs after some nasty battle that almost claimed their whole family.  
All of sudden, the strange object detached from the machinery and fell straight to the floor.  
Liam grabbed it out of instinct and would have wonder why a magic object just decided to show up in a place of science as the Expo, if not for the explosions all over around him.  
Without thinking too much, Liam teleported away from the explosions, disappearing in his opalescent white cloud.

/◄►/

All things considered, it ended up well.  
Stark fixed his problems on his own; the pavilion Liam took the foreign object from was blown up in one of the drones' explosions and so were the cameras that saw him stealing it and teleporting.  
Fury didn't tell him more than he already had, except that he scolded him for being too impulsive, adding that he wanted a complete report on whatever the object was since it was technically theft.  
Liam knew a couple people who were able to tell him, but they were going to need a while.  
In the meantime, he was going to share the photos of the Expo with his sister, trying to ignore their mother "I told you" glare. 

**Author's Note:**

> Here again. I just wanted to point out that each shot has the same scheme as this one: it starts with the background of the OC (family, personality and so on), along with bits of info that (I hope) will complete the picture, and continues with the story.  
> Hope you liked it.


End file.
